Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph. Enjoy!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Pool Hall

This is Beer Joint and Pool Hall week, so we better work in some pictures of Pool Halls. This is a great one from Shasta County, California. The picture is from 1940. There was a pool hall in the small town I grew up in in the 1960's. Social norms were, polite society did not frequent such a place. The county I lived in was "dry" so there was no alcohol served there, but none the less, you would never consider walking in such an establishment. I can remember looking in the window once, and there were not even any pool tables in there. It was a bunch of men sitting around playing dominoes. So, I am not sure what the stigma was associated with that place.

7 comments:

Pool was a latecomer to the UK; we had a huge billiards hall in the town I grew up in and though called a billiards hall, snooker was the game of choice. The building had to be big to accomodate the dozen or so full sized tables. The social norms seemed to be the same this side of the Pond, as it was a place also frowned on and my grandma thought it a den of iniquity which had no place in a decent town. Though the town was overcrowded with licensed pubs and working-mens' clubs, only soft drinks and tea or coffee were served at the hall. (And the odd sandwich for those who could not drag themselves away from the tables.)

I'll bet that pool hall's existence was due to the building of Shasta dam, 1937-1945. Hundreds of workers with nowhere to go for entertainment. Life magazine did a story back then with photos of workers in a beer/ dance hall near a similar site I think in Ft Peck Montana.

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I grew up in West Texas, and could not wait to get away. I got away, and went to the University of Texas, and then on to Stanford. I saw the world, and decided what I really wanted was to be in West Texas. So here I am, right back where I started. I had it all, and found it was not that great.

I have been an avid collector of old photographs and documents for over 30
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